ABSTRACT.
It is suggested that the GRIP Greenland ice-core should
constitute the stratotype for the Last Termination. Based on the oxygen isotope
signal in that core, a new event stratigraphy spanning the time
interval from ca. 22.0 to 11.5 k GRIP yr BP (ca. 19.0-10.0 k14C yr BP)
is proposed for the North Atlantic region. This covers the period from the Last
Glacial Maximum, through Termination 1 of the deep-ocean record,
to the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, and encompasses
the Last Glacial Late-glacial of the traditional
nortwest European stratigraphy. The isotopic record for this period is
divided into two stadial episodes, Greenland
Stadials 1 (GS-1) and 2 (GS-2), and two interstadial events, Greenland
Interstadials 1 (GI-1) and 2 (GI-2). In addition, GI-1 and GS-2 are
further subdivided into shorter episodes. The event stratigraphy is
equally applicable to ice-core, marine and terrestrial
records and is considered to
be a more appropriate classificatory scheme than the
terrestrially based radiocarbon-dated chronostratigraphy
that has been used hitherto. (Copyright John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)